The Fiery Fate of Brass!
by Martianlightsaber
Summary: Written in the style of a pokemon episode "outtake" which focuses on the characters who no longer travel with Ash and gang.  May and Drew travel the Johto region together when the Brass tower of Ecruteak city burns down...


A/N This isn t really Contestshippy, it s just how I d imagine one of those inserted episodes about characters that are out of the show would be. There are some Contestshippy moments but the main idea of the episode is more of the usual heroic stuff, minus Team Rocket.

NARRATOR:

Intent on starting her own journey in the Johto region, May leaves her brother Max and her friends Ash and Brock to fulfill her dream of becoming the top coordinator. Along the way she meets new pokemon, new friends and new rivals. After an encounter in Cherrygrove city, she is joined by none other than Drew, her very first contest rival. As our heroes arrive in Ecruteak city, who knows what new adventures await them?

"Alright Beautifly, we got all the berries we ll need for making some great poffins today!" May chirped happily to the pokemon perched on her bandana, munching away on one of their newly-collected berries. They had been tasked to collect berries from the nearby route 38 while Drew had gone to get supplies from the city s pokemart. Her momentary daydream about poffins and how they were going to win her the next ribbon was interrupted by a sudden uproar in the street a few meters ahead of her.

"Can I have your autograph?"

"Will you please sign my shirt?"

"Will you go out with me!"

'Wonder who the famous celebrity is?' May thought as she approached the mob of guys wildly waving random artifacts in hope of getting them signed. Taking advantage of a gap in the crowd, she took a good look at the pretty girl about 18 years of age who was obviously the center of attention. Clad in a sky blue "Altaria Ace" baby tee and bell-bottomed khaki jeans with long sea-green hair tied up neatly in a ponytail, she looked immensely flustered by the attention but was politely signing the autographs as they were thrust before her.

"Wow! It s Gloria, last year s Johto league champion! I had no idea she was so popular..." May breathed. Gloria turned at that moment, elated to finally see a female face and practically leapt out of her circle of frenzied fans.

"MAY! Thank goodness, I was looking all over for you, let's go for that sundae!" she said overenthusiastically as she grabbed May by the wrist and rounded the nearest corner, dashed into a small cottage and collapsed on the nearest sofa before any of her fans fully realized that their idol had left the scene.

"Sorry about that," she said sheepishly as May continued to look at her in a stunned manner, having not really believed that the Johto league champion knew her name and had just dragged her into her house after being chased by a mob of crazy fanboys. "Those guys haven t given me any peace since I stepped out this morning, so I was really desperate for an excuse to get away. I'm really sorry for shocking you like that."

"Oh i-it was n-no problem at all!" May stuttered, snapping out of her trance. "It's just how did you know my name?"

"Simple! I saw you on TV at the Kanto Grand Festival! Your battling skills are pretty good," Gloria complimented, causing May to blush.

"But your battle in the Johto league finals was amazing! I've never seen so much power and grace in combination attacks before!" May exclaimed. This time it was Gloria s turn to blush as she waved it off, heading for the kitchen.

"Anyway, I do owe you a sundae for helping me out, so dig in!" she giggled as she saw May's eyes light up at the prospect of ice cream. The two girls headed for the Pokemon Center after their snack, Gloria to collect her pokemon from Nurse Joy, and May to deposit her berries in the room. She was greeted with a familiar flick of chartreuse hair as she rounded the corridor to the Pokemon Center's rooms.

"Late as usual May, did you get lost again?" Drew taunted.

"For your information I was done picking berries by 9.30!" May exploded, quickly losing her temper with her traveling partner and rival. "Then I met a new friend when she was escaping from her fanclub, so we went over to her place for ice cream and chit chat. Gloria! Over here!" She waved her new friend over to where the duo was bickering.

At the mention of 'Gloria', Drew lost his usual composure and promptly collapsed to the floor, earning an annoyed look from May and a smirk from Gloria who approached while snapping her pokeballs back onto her belt.

"So little bro, I see you still haven't won the grand festival. May, I'm surprised you can endure traveling with Mr. Act-Cool here," she sang, a teasing glint her eyes.

"Because I _am_ cool sis, and I said I ll win it, just give me time," Drew countered as he picked himself up from the floor, casually flicking his hair and glaring at his older sister. After all, it had been more than 5 years since he d been on the receiving end of the teasing.

"Wow, Drew's sister?" May questioned no one in particular. Unfortunately she'd gone unnoticed as the sibling's insult match got more heated.

"So how bout a little battle to see if you stand a chance little bro?"

"You're ON."

On the field outside the Pokemon center, Drew was glaring daggers at his sister while Gloria merely wore the trademark family smirk as she eyed her brother. Oh how she missed having someone to tease.

"This will be a one-on-one battle, no time limit. Begin!" May shouted, volunteering to referee.

"Go Roselia!"

"Elekid, go!"

"Youngest first little bro."

"You ll regret that, Roselia, petal dance!"

"Elekid, thundershock!"

Elekid's thundershock easily fried the oncoming petals, leaving both pokemon unharmed.

"Enough with the warm-up, Elekid, Fire punch!"

"Dodge and use Solar beam!"

"Fire swift!" Fully expecting Roselia's expert dodge, Elekid merely stopped where it was and launched the swift attack straight up from its already flaming arms.

Caught off guard while gathering power for solar beam, Roselia took a heavy hit from the powerful combination of flaming stars.

"Roselia, magical leaf and sweet scent!"

Surprised by Roselia's quick recovery, Gloria hadn't called an attack in time to prevent Elekid from taking the hit. However she stood her ground and didn't call a subsequent attack, inviting her opponent to attack first.

Drew saw this coming, having watched his sister battle in the Johto league twice, and realizing that she had Soledad's style, so he too stopped and waited. The tension in the air could be sliced by a knife as the siblings watched each other, neither willing to make the first move.

Deciding that a stalemate was no way to go, Gloria decided to make the next call.

"Elekid, jump."

Surprised by the seemingly pointless command, Drew and Roselia watched as Elekid disappeared into the blinding midday sun. What surprised them even more was that Elekid didn't show any signs of returning to the ground either.

"Thunder."

"Quick Roselia, Solar beam!"

The two attacks met in mid-air, causing an explosion which winded Roselia as Elekid floated unharmed to the ground.

"How-"

"Psychic, little bro, bet you didn t know that. Alright Elekid, let's finish this. Double team and thunderbolt."

"Protect!"

This sent the thunderbolts back at all the Elekid doubles, eliminating each one before hitting the real deal, shocking it mildly. Neither side was ready to lose, with both trainers and pokemon poised and ready for the next attack.

"Elekid, rain shock."

"What?"

Not even knowing what attack this was, Drew couldn't come up with a defense in time as he watched the network of lightning bolts weaving themselves around droplets of rain which pelted Roselia with minor but continuous electric shocks. Worn from all the damage it had taken, Roselia collapsed just as Gloria called off the attack.

"Roselia is unable to battle. The winner is Gloria!" May announced, slightly thunderstruck at the outcome of the battle - she knew Drew was good, but apparently his sister was much better. She was considering going to comfort him but the siblings insult-throwing match had already recommenced.

'Looks like sarcasm runs in the family' she thought, sweat-dropping at the bickering duo.

"Battling like that I m surprised you even made it to the Grand Festival little bro."

"I had no problems getting to the Grand festival thanks. I thought _you_ were the one having trouble battling seeing how you almost lost the Johto league. Too busy staring at your opponent Steven if I recall,"" a teasing-scathing remark which caused Gloria to turn a light shade of pink before countering.

"Oh really? I thought that was how you lost the Kanto Grand Festival Drew," she said with a knowing smirk, this time causing her little brother to turn a rather adorable shade of crimson which clashed magnificently with his hair as he prayed that May wasn't listening carefully to the verbal sparring. Thankfully she was too busy thinking about her own arguments with Max to really hear what they were saying.

"I lost that battle fair and square. But I won a rematch and I won't be losing again."

"So you admit she was bet-"

Beep-beep-beep!

Oh sorry that's my phone, Gloria sweat-dropped as their argument came to an abrupt halt due to the beeping from her pocket.

Over at the Brass tower, Steven was warding off falling beams and burning artifacts as he wrestled his way through the building trying to bring all the sages who resided there to safety. Clutching his poketech, he dialed the first number he could think of.

"Gloria! -cough- The Brass Tower s burning, I need help to get everyone out!"

"Alright, I'll be right there."

"Hurry! -cough-"

Flipping her pokegear closed, Gloria gestured for the two younger trainers to run as she took off in the direction of the Brass Tower, filling them in on the situation along the way.

They arrived just in time to see the top floor of the Brass tower collapse as the flames shot even higher, engulfing the building's interior in black smoke. May could feel tears prickling in her eyes; whether this was because of the smoke or because such a rich cultural treasure was being lost to tragedy, she didn t know.

"May, Drew, you guys take the bottom floors, I'll be making sure no one s left trapped in the top floors."

Nodding, they took off to their respective floors, releasing their water pokemon to extinguish the fires and rescuing some of the trapped sages. Fifteen minutes into their rescue mission, May and Drew heard another floor collapse above them, sending tremors down to the lower floors and causing a few more smoldering beams to collapse. Returning from sending Sage Won to safety, May called out for anyone who might still have been trapped in the tower. Through the thick smoke, she thought she saw a brown creature bounding across the room, but it disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. Still trying to make out if she was imagining things, May didn t notice the beam directly overhead as it came plummeting down toward her.

"May look out!" Drew called, his voice slightly hoarse from coughing on the thick smoke.

He tackled her to the ground a split second before the crash, noticing too late that this left them trapped in a corner of the burning tower.

"Thanks," May muttered, blushing slightly from the proximity of their faces, but recovering quickly as another resounding crash echoed through the tower. Back on their feet and standing back to back, they surveyed the situation the beams were burned through and far too weak to support the building s structure anymore. If they doused them with water gun as they had earlier, there was no telling when the support structures would snap. But if they didn't, the heat from the flames would prevent them from moving from the spot which they had been caught in.

"Of course! Squirtle, use ice beam to create pillars around us!"

"Good thinking May, now Masquerain, bubble! Flygon take us out of here!"

Squirtle's ice beam held the ceiling up for the few seconds it took them to escape as Masquerain doused the flames with a powerful bubble attack and Drew hopped onto Flygon, pulling May along with him. They burst out of the crumbling wall of the fourth storey just as it collapsed behind them, miraculously extinguishing the fire and leaving the remaining three stories smoldering. They collapsed onto the ground exhausted, still coughing lightly from the smoke exposure.

"THANK GOODNESS you two are okay!" Gloria ran over to the two teens, hugging them tightly as Steven followed close behind.

"Told you they d be okay," Steven smiled at the two younger trainers, who looked up at him questioningly. "Firstly, I'll let you two know that everyone got out safely and it's all thanks to your help. Secondly, I'm Steven, you could say I'm Gloria's traveling partner," to which Drew snickered slightly, throwing Gloria a cheeky look. This was lost on Steven though, as he continued with his introduction, I study pokemon legends so I was just taking a look at some of the artifacts in the Brass Tower when the fire started from nowhere. It's quite a loss to the city but it isn t unexpected.

"Why isn t unexpected?" Drew asked, stealing the words from May s mouth.

"Come on, let's get you guys cleaned up before we tell you the rest of the story," he chuckled as he led May, Drew and Gloria back to the cottage May had visited earlier that morning. They graciously accepted the thanks of the sages whom they had rescued and took their leave while some of the younger sages had released their pokemon to quell the remaining embers.

Back in the cottage, May and Drew were being fussed over by the older teens, submitting to being plastered and bandaged for every little bruise and minor burn.

"We're fine! Really!" May squeaked as Gloria tried to administer another ointment to the burn on her leg. Drew merely flipped his hair at the most inconvenient times as Steven tried to plaster the cut on his arm. "Can you tell us about the Brass tower now?"

Deciding that Drew was a lost cause, Steven settled into the sofa and draped his arm across Gloria's shoulders as he began his tale on how the Brass Tower had been burned down centuries back when a war broke out between humans and pokemon, angering Ho-oh and Lugia, which resided in the Brass Tower and the nearby Tin Tower. "That was the first time witnesses saw the three legendary cats, as they escaped from the burning tower and took refuge in the woods of Johto. Since then, the people of Ecruteak City had tried rebuilding the Brass tower several times to restore the city to its former glory, but every time, some mysterious power would cause it to burn down to the last three stories. Investigations determined that no arson was involved, and no one could understand why the last three stories were always left standing."

"What are the legendary cats?" May asked, earning herself a scoff from Drew, who had evidently heard of them before.

"They are Entei, Raikou and Suicune, said to be the spirits of the volcano, thunder and north wind respectively. No one really knows very much about them, except that their existence is very much linked to the history of this city," Steven explained, retrieving a book from his shelf and showing May a picture of the three legendaries.

"I thought I saw something when we were in the tower, but the smoke was too thick so I couldn t really tell," May said quietly as she examined the creatures in the book. 'It looked like an Entei' she mused, lost in thought. The others had already begun a discussion about Ho-oh and Lugia, which she knew nothing about. Feeling slightly left out, she excused herself to take a walk outside as the evening brought a cool breeze to clear her mind.

She released Beautifly and picked a small grass patch nearby to sit and watch the sunset, turning over the day's events and worrying slightly about the upcoming contest the next day. She wondered vaguely if Gloria and Steven would still be in town to watch them compete. As she thought about it, she realized that the two of them seemed rather close, and remembered Drew's comment about how Gloria had nearly lost the Johto league because she'd been distracted by him.

As if on cue, she looked up to see the three familiar faces peering at her. 'Guess I was a little too deep in thought' she thought wryly, as she got up to accompany her friends.

"May, Drew. Gloria and I will be hitting the road now because we got a call from Lance to be back at the Indigo Plateau. Sorry we won t get to see your contest tomorrow," Steven explained, looking slightly apologetic.

"Well, duty calls! But we'll be cheering for you once you're at the Grand Festival!" Gloria added, giving them a good luck wink.

"Hey Steven, take care of my sis for me will ya?" Drew smirked, flipping his hair.

"Of course," he responded, slowly snaking his arm around Gloria's waist and pulling her closer. "You take care of her now alright?" he tilted his head in May's direction, causing her to blush as she contemplated whether it'd be worth denying and starting an argument.

"I already do, else May would never have found her way to the contest hall in time to get her first ribbon," Drew flicked his hair once more, prompting May to erupt in mock anger again.

"I would have found the contest hall just FINE Drew AND are you forgetting tha-" May spluttered as her view was once again obstructed by a fully-bloomed rose.

"You did well but that's only because I wasn't in the contest."

"Oh YEAH, we ll see about that when I beat you tomorrow!" May yelled as she snatched the rose roughly, but nevertheless decided to make full use of it and inhaled its sweet scent.

"Want to bet?" he challenged with a smirk as May glared at him for insulting her coordinating abilities for the millionth time.

"ALRIGHT BREAK IT UP! Keep training little bro, and good luck to you too May. May the best coordinator win!" Gloria giggled as she interrupted the quarrelling pair.

Waving goodbye to Gloria and Steven, May and Drew watched as they disappeared into the sunset.

"Aw isn't it sweet how they're in love?" May cooed with little sparkles in her eyes.

"What's sweet is when I take you down in tomorrow's contest!" Drew flicked his hair playfully in front of May's line of vision, snapping her out of her reverie and effectively ruining the moment.

"We'll see about that Mr. Rose!" May yelled, only to realize that Drew was already walking back to the pokemon center. "Hey Drew, wait up!"

NARRATOR:

After an encounter with the mysterious Brass Tower and meeting family and new friends, May and Drew are all ready for tomorrow s Ecruteak contest. But who will prevail in their quest to win the coveted Johto Ribbon Cup?

To Be Continued...


End file.
